“The days began in bathing suits then to shorts to pants, long sleeve shirts and jackets,” Lynn Stayton-Eurell wrote in a post on her local history blog, Montauk Unspoiled, of her childhood vacations in Montauk during the 1960s and ‘70s. “Barefoot, to socks and sneakers. Every summer we packed four seasons’ clothing. It got cold fast even in the height of summer. So much fun I loved it all.”
Some of the people who treasure Montauk most are not year-rounders but people whose experiences feel exceptional in part by virtue of occurring only at certain times of the year. That seems to have been the case with the Cahill and Stayton families, who split their time between Montauk and Queens or Montauk and Port Washington roughly from 1939 to 1995.
Between 1940 and 1958, Michael and Margaret Cahill, who loved the water, purchased eight small lots in Hither Hills, which was then mostly undeveloped, from the Mirror Holding Company. In 1941, Michael Cahill bought a $900 kit to build his family a summer home at 95 Bryan Road.
Because Michael served with the Navy from 1943 to 1945, Margaret and their three daughters, Peggy, Eleanor, and Carol, lived alone in Montauk in the summer, going through blackouts and rationing without a telephone but with “polite young servicemen” stationed in Montauk offering them assistance. (Family photos also depict handsome young lifeguards at nearby Hither Hills State Park.)
All three daughters were models at some point. In Montauk they participated in beauty pageants at the Surf Club, also frolicking on the ocean beach at Lee Court. In addition, Carol Cahill in particular liked riding horses at Cooper’s Deep Hollow Ranch, playing golf, and square dancing at Hither Hills. Her mother, Margaret, enjoyed dressing up for the Montauk Village Association’s annual Greenery Scenery party, volunteering with community organizations, and writing and painting.
A professional model, Eleanor Cahill met Leon (Bud) Stayton at Trail’s End Restaurant in 1949 while he was stationed at Camp Hero, and they had three children, Larry, Lee, and Lynn. Eleanor moved to Montauk full-time with Lynn in 1977, working at Hither Hills State Park and then at the Montauk Lighthouse.
Eleanor Stayton eventually sold her house in Montauk. Although Lynn no longer lives in Montauk, she married a local, Michael Eurell, who still has relatives living there. Last year Lynn Stayton-Eurell donated scans of a large collection of her family’s materials to the Montauk Library, many of which can be seen online at New York Digital Heritage. Among them are photographs documenting the construction of their home, family members engaging in recreational activities, and places like Hither Hills, Shepherd’s Neck Inn, the Surf Club, Gosman’s, and Montauk Harbor as they appeared decades ago, especially in the 1940s to 1960s.
All told, the images provide a generous serving of Montauk flavor during that era and beyond, and also of one family’s deep enjoyment of a particular place and time.
“Our extended family loved spending time in Montauk and were frequently there,” Lynn wrote on Montauk Unspoiled. “My brothers and I had the best times of our lives growing up every summer.”
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